Life...as told by Shaina

Now, let me first say it says easier, it doesn’t say easy peasy! Starting a workout routine or even starting healthy habits takes time and patience with yourself! Be sure to set achievable goals so that you can start off on the right foot. This means if you don’t work out at all right now, don’t make a goal to work out every day! Think about your schedule and set an achievable goal for yourself. This could be anything from 1 day to 3, but be sure to take small steps. Your fitness is not a destination, it’s a journey! When I first started adding a fitness routine into my daily schedule I started off working out after work. At the time it worked great, but I started to notice that things would start creeping into my workout time. For example, dinner, hanging out with friends, being super tired, etc. I was able to overcome those things, but I really wanted to have more time after work to relax or hang out with friends (this was pre-corona). I moved my workouts to the morning startin

Throughout my recent fitness transformation, I’ve realized that it is in fact a journey. I think a lot of times people think that getting fit is a one-stop shop. They think that once they get to a certain weight or their bodies look a certain way, then they will be done. I’m here to tell you, that attaining a healthy life is not a point you can cross off! It is a journey and a constant process of choosing to do those healthy things. I’m not just talking about eating healthy and working out.  There is so much more to health than just those two things (don’t get me wrong, they are super important), you also have to get enough sleep every night, drink water, as well as focus on your mental and emotional health. Does that help show you that it’s not just one thing to cross off? It’s a constant journey to improve ourselves and live the best that we can. And this means that it’s not always easy-rather, it’s hard! Recently our church had a conference and one of the talks really stru

Last January (2019) I decided I needed to make a change. I was commuting an hour and ten minutes one way and most of my job consisted of sitting. I also was going to be turning 25 (I know, so old! ;)) and heard somewhere that after you turn 25 it’s a lot harder to become healthy. (I have no idea if that is true, but it scared me enough to motivate me)  So I decided I needed to find something that I could do to stay healthy. The hard part was that by the time I got home from work it was 6:30 pm and I was starving and ready for dinner.  I didn’t want to go anywhere after driving to work and was already getting up at 5:50 am. I didn’t know how I was going to fit it in until a very wise co-worker suggested I eat a snack on the way home! It was like a light-bulb went off in my brain.  You all may have noticed that was the answer right away, but for me when I was trying to figure it out, I just saw a huge roadblock. Once she suggested that my biggest “excuse” was gone and I just needed

I’m really good at doing what people tell me to do. Like, give me an assignment and I can get it done! The harder part comes when you give me more freedom. Like I have to call all the shots?? I actually got feedback from one of my internship supervisors that related to this. I walked into the one on one thinking I was going to get perfect marks. And he surprised me! But in a good way, he told me, “You’re really great at coming to us and asking what you can do to help. I would love it if instead of coming to us and asking what you could do, you instead came to us with an idea or even something that you had already done. Fulfill a need and take that initiative! You are a part of this internship for a reason and we trust you.” That was probably the best constructive feedback I have ever gotten and I really took it in stride. I started looking for ways I could help and contribute instead of just asking. Flash-forward two years later and I was walking into another one on one with